drove
/dɹəʊv//dɹoʊv/
drove noun: the herd being driven in a cattle (or other animal) drive; thus, a number of animals driven to market or new pastures; a group of livestock animals more generally. Also the simple past of drive.
Noun
drove (plural droves)
- The herd being driven in a cattle (or other animal) drive; thus, a number of animals driven to market or new pastures; a group of livestock animals more generally.
- Synonyms:
- drift
- A large number of people on the move.
- in droves
- A group of other animals, especially hares when seen in coursing or hunting.
- The boy hunters had arrived at the wood grove, far off from the wary drove of hares, who resumed foraging cautiously, as before.2026, T.D. Motley, Planting and Painting the Landscape: A Sequel to The Art of Farming, Stoney Creek Publishing Group
- she and her companion got among a regular drove of hares1894, Dromas, “Review of Coursing Season, 1893-94”, in The Greyhound Stud Book, volume Volume 13, National Coursing Club, page 120
- A road or track along which cattle are habitually, used to be or could be driven; a droveway.
- A narrow drain or channel used in the irrigation of land.
- A broad chisel used to bring stone to a nearly smooth surface.
- The grooved surface of stone finished by the drove chisel.
Verb
drove (third-person singular simple present droves, present participle droving, simple past and past participle droved)
- To herd cattle; particularly over a long distance.
- He's droving now with Conroy's sheep along the Castlereagh.1890, Banjo Paterson, The Man from Snowy River
- He was droving his mob of fats to Derby, to ship by the southern boat for Fremantle.1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 11
- Synonyms:
- drive
- To finish (stone) with a drove chisel.
Also used as
drove is also the simple past of drive.
drove is also the past participle of drive.
Examples of drove in a sentence
- My grandfather worked in a mill. He operated machinery, did maintenance, and drove forklifts.
- He drove the heel of his hand into the man's nose.
- The hunting dog drove the birds out of the tall grass.
Synonyms of drove
Forms of drove
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | droves |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | droves |
| present participle | droving |
| past participle | droved |
| past | droved |
Origin of drove
From Middle English drove, drof, draf, from Old English drāf (“action of driving; a driving out, expulsion; drove, herd, band; company, band; road along which cattle are driven”), from Proto-Germanic *draibō (“a drive, push, movement, drove”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreybʰ- (“to drive, push”). Cognate with Scots drave, dreef (“drove, crowd”), Dutch dreef (“a walkway, wide road with trees, drove”), Middle High German treip (“a drove”), Swedish drev (“a drive, drove”), Icelandic dreif (“a scattering, distribution”). More at drive.
From earlier drave, from Middle English drave, draf, from Old English drāf, first and third person singular indicative preterite of drīfan (“to drive”).
Words formed from drove
Phrases with drove
- drove at
- drove in
- drove up
- drove off
- drove out
- drove away
- drove back
- drove down
- test drove
- daily drove
- drove roads
- drove stick
26 more phrasesFewer phrases
- drove truck
- drove a wedge
- drove it down
- drove to drink
- back-seat drove
- drank and drove
- drove someone mad
- drove someone nuts
- drove someone crazy
- drove a hard bargain
- drove someone insane
- drove something down
- drove to distraction
- drove a wedge between
- drove into the ground
- drove someone to drink
- drove the porcelain bus
- drove someone to the wall
- drove someone up the wall
- drove one's pigs to market
- drove a coach and six through
- drove a nail where it would go
- drove a stake through its heart
- drove something into the ground
- drove a coach and horses through
- drove a nail in someone's coffin
Words that rhyme with drove
41 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- strove
- throve
- trove
- wove
- Arnold's Cove
- arrove
- belove
- Bird Cove
- Bishop's Cove
- Brent's Cove
- Bryant's Cove
- byhove
- Chance Cove
- Coachman's Cove
- Cox's Cove
- flower of Jove
- Flower's Cove
- Frenchman's Cove
- gove
- Jemmy's Cove
- King's Cove
- Lewin's Cove
- Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove
- Lord's Cove
- Miles Cove
- Norman's Cove-Long Cove
- Parker's Cove
- Petty Harbour-Maddox Cove
- Pool's Cove
- Port au Port West-Aguathuna-Felix Cove
- Pouch Cove
- Sally's Cove
- Salmon Cove
- Sandy Cove
- shove
- slove
- Small Point-Adam's Cove-Blackhead-Broad Cove
- St. Jacques-Coomb's Cove
- Tilt Cove
- Upper Island Cove
- Warren Grove
Questions about drove
- What does drove mean?
- Drove means the herd being driven in a cattle (or other animal) drive; thus, a number of animals driven to market or new pastures; a group of livestock animals more generally.
- What part of speech is drove?
- Drove can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce drove?
- Drove is pronounced /dɹəʊv/ (UK).
- What is the plural of drove?
- The plural of drove is droves.
Words near drove in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: drove (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-drove.ogg, en-us-drove.ogg.
Cite this entry: “drove.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/drove. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.